After five inmates have escaped and been captured in St.Mary Parish, the sheriff is now speaking to KATC about what’s being done in the interest of security.
Sheriff Scott Anslum already reassigned the jail’s warden and has fired a total of five deputies over the escape and he says more changes are on the way.
"So I’ve been having a number of meetings with parish officials, in fact, today I just finished walking with our parish president David Hanigriff. We are looking at a number of things at our facility to come up with a plan to outline and ensure that these incidents in this manner, doesn’t happen again," Anslum said.
Sheriff Anslum said maintenance which is overseen by parish government, is a good place to start.
"There are obviously are a handful of employees that failed to do some duties that ensure the security of the facility and ensure the offenders are kept in place," Anslum said.
Anslum said safety is his biggest priority and under his leadership, he refuses to see any employee not to take safety seriously.
That means the Sheriff is investigating all avenues of the escapes, including the possibility of inside jobs.
"Nothing is off the table at this time. The investigation is ongoing and we are looking at all aspects of the investigation as we navigate through it," Anslum said.
He said if certain deputies would have followed proper protocol, the escapes could have been prevented. He is confident that security measures are being put in place to make sure that escapes like these don’t happen again.
